


Taco Bell

by drinkinpinkrabbits



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe - Different First Meeting, F/F, Fluff, kinda dumb but at least i'm self aware lol, taco bell sauce packets
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-18
Updated: 2018-10-18
Packaged: 2019-08-03 18:57:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,609
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16331663
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/drinkinpinkrabbits/pseuds/drinkinpinkrabbits
Summary: Ruby loved Taco Bell.  She always had, ever since she was a child, because the nachos tasted almost exactly like her mother’s.  Almost.  A favorite childhood game she would play was arranging the sauce packets to form a story.  What if the little sauce packets start a story for Ruby?





	Taco Bell

Ruby loved Taco Bell. She always had, ever since she was a child, because the nachos tasted almost exactly like her mother’s. Almost. So when her 18th birthday struck and she was thrown into a small college that accepted her poor grades, she would sit alone in an empty booth, eating nachos and pretending to read the boring book in front of her.

One of her favorite pastimes inside the restaurant was to grab the sauce packets with random dialogue on them and put them together to form a story. When she started to get older, however, the need to satisfy her aching hunger replaced the want to be creative. Or it could have been the confused stares she received from fellow customers when she grabbed 10 sauce packets from the condiment baskets every five minutes to complete a love story between a horny teenager and a lovelorn 40-year-old that caused her to stop. No one will ever know.

And so, the young adult walked into the building after an awkward day at school in an attempt to stuff her face and drink so much Dr.Pepper that the sugar-jitters would distract her from her embarrassing thoughts. One particular incident today was quite memorable, and Ruby had a feeling that she would be laying in her bed tonight, unable to sleep, questioning the popcorn ceiling why she was so stupid and clumsy. It was so cliche, too. (Maybe a little gayer than usual, but hey.) The clumsy new college student drops her chapstick, and in an attempt to retrieve it, bashes into what seemed to be the most beautiful girl she’s ever seen in her life, who helps her collect her things and leaves after an awkward goodbye.

Shaking the thought out of her mind, Ruby proceeded to wait in line and order her food. After spotting an empty booth, something bright caught her eye. She shrugged as she grabbed a handful of mild sauce packets and went along her way. As she was waiting for her name to be called, she began arranging the packets absentmindedly on the semi-clean table and smiled as a feeling of nostalgia washed over her.

When she had finished her meal and was getting ready to leave, Ruby had failed to remember to clear the sauce packets off the table, leaving with a full belly and without a care in the world.

 

 

Sapphire hated working at Taco Bell. But it was the only way for her to pay her college fees after her parents found about her...lack of attraction towards men. As a result, her dreams of attending Yale were crushed and she had to settle for a college about two hours away from her hometown. Now, she didn’t mind being cashier during the day, but she despised having to clean up after hours because everyone would rush her. It was almost as if all her lazy fellow employees circled around her and chanted like a cult, except the motive of this cult was not worshipping blood, rather, it was worshipping the idea of coming back home and sleeping.

As she was wiping down one of the booths, she noticed something peculiar about it. Sauce packets were lined up on the table to form some sort of dialogue between two people, one a hopeless romantic and one a suggestive hornball. It seemed to start with a simple hello, to accepting a friend request, stating that they were single and looking for a friend or something more, and other silly quotes that seemed to progress in levels of intimacy. Sapphire smiled at the sense of humor the former customer must have had, when suddenly an idea popped in her head. She cleared off all the packets until only one was left, the one that only said a simple “Hello” and left it there for the night. She bid farewell to her coworkers and began her walk home, wondering if someone would notice that one packet was left on the table.

 

 

It was 7:30 am when Ruby’s loud and annoying alarm clock woke both her and her roommate up.

“Ugh, turn it ooooofff.” Amethyst groaned from her bed as Ruby blindly searched for the snooze button.

“Alright alright, just stop whining.” Ruby said, annoyed herself about the interruption of slumber. She slammed her hand on the damn alarm clock and let her arm go limp, almost going back to sleep as the noise stopped. 

That is, until her purple-headed friend decided a different fate.

“RUBY. GET YOUR ASS UP. WE’RE GOING TO TACO BELL!” Amethyst yelled, shaking Ruby.

“The hell is wrong with you? I thought a second ago you wanted to sleep…”

“HAHA! Not anymore! I want breakfast, and I want it at Taco Bell. Sooo get up, and get ready.”

 

 

A tired Ruby attempted to rub the sleep out of her eyes as she opened the door for a very energetic Amethyst. With half-lidded eyes, she searched the room for a booth and sat down, crossing her arms on the table and resting her head. Her face scrunched in confusion when she felt something slightly cool and squishy under her bare arms. She lifted her head and grimaced at the sauce that was splattered onto the table. Picking up the packet, she realized she was sitting in the same place as yesterday...and that the remaining packets were gone. She cringed at the thought of someone else seeing her sauce packet stories; it seemed as if whoever left the friendly “Hello” was almost mocking her. Then again, it could also mean they wanted to participate in this strange game a young Ruby had created.

Amethyst plopped down in the seat across from the curly-haired girl, knocking her out of her thoughts. 

“I ordered four quesadillas, if you want any you can go order some yourself.”

Ruby rolled her eyes. “How considerate of you. Are you telling me you’re going to eat four quesadillas all by yourself?”

“yEs i’M gOing tO eAt fOuR qUesAdiLlAs bY mYSelF,” Amethyst scrunched her face as she mocked her roommate, “who do you think I am, Pearl?” she chuckled, referring to their friend that didn’t seem to have the primal need to eat food.

Ruby sighed and resisted the urge to roll her eyes once more. “No. But I think you’re gonna gain another 20 pounds if you don’t chill out there.”

“Weeellllll. Not all of us are all big and buff and worry about ohhhh noooo calorriieessssss.” Amethyst snickered.

“Whatever.” Ruby shook her head, allowing a smile to form on her tan face.

She wasn’t that hungry if she was honest with herself. But she figured that one breakfast burrito wouldn’t hurt, she’d run it off later anyway.

When she approached the cash register, she almost couldn’t believe her eyes. Familiar blonde waves of hair stuck out of a black baseball cap and rested upon apron-clad shoulders. Bangs covered most of the upper part of the girl’s face, but the subtle hints of bright blue eyes contrasting with mocha brown skin were enough to make the tomboy’s cheek flood with color.

That and the fact that this was the same girl she crashed into yesterday.  
“Hello, what can I get for you today?” a calm voice spilled out of full lips that held a small smile.

Ruby stared at the girl for a good two seconds before realizing she needed to say something to avoid further humiliation. She cleared her throat.

“Uhm I’ll have the uh. Grilled breakfast burrito with guac.” Ruby gave her a tentative smile and inwardly cursed herself.

She’s not actually talking to you, idiot. She’s a fucking cashier. What is wrong with you. She only wants your order, Jesus…”

“Sounds good, would you like anything else?” there was that pretty smile again.

“Nope I’m good, thanks!” she squeaked out.

After handing the girl a spare five she had in her jeans, she started walking towards her table. But not before her eyes rested on the condiment baskets. She considered it for a moment, grabbing one. Fishing out a response to the packet that was laying on the table, no matter how ridiculous and unlikely the same person would find her retort.

She let her gaze fall to her feet and continued walking towards her table. Amethyst was busy texting Pearl on her phone, so she sat and pulled out her own.

A few minutes passed before she heard that soft voice again.

“Order number four!”

She went up to grab her tray and thanked the pretty girl that handed it to her. She noticed her nametag as her fingers came in contact with the warm plastic that held her food, Sapphire.

Of course her name’s beautiful too.

She looked at the condiments one last time.

Fuck it.

Her curiosity got the better of her, and she tried and failed to be subtle in her attempt to find something to respond to a hello. She prayed that Sapphire wouldn’t notice her digging and from her observations, her prayer had been answered. Unbeknownst to her, she was wrong.

 

Sapphire had been called at 5:30 in the morning, and fortunately, she had already been awake for about thirty minutes anyway. Her boss apologized for the timing and asked if she could come by for the morning shift, grumbling about how lazy Lars was and how she would kick his ass if she could.

“It’s alright Peri, I’ve got nothing better to do anyway.” she chuckled lightly. That was the truth, and as much as she disliked the idea of working so early, it meant more money for her. Which meant she could maybe go grocery shopping for some real food instead of warming up one of the frozen dinners in her freezer.

“Whew, thanks so much Saph, you’re a lifesaver!” her boss hung up the phone and she sighed.

Time to go to work.

 

It had been about thirty minutes since Sapphire arrived at work and 7:30 was rolling around. There hadn’t been that many people so far. Maybe the occasional hurried person in a suit, quickly asking for a breakfast something something and looking either groggy or exasperated.

Just when she was getting lost in her thoughts about boring customers, the door opened and a short and seemingly exhausted girl walked in, holding the door for her energetic friend that looked extremely excited to be here, despite it literally being a Taco Bell.

She recognized the girl, the one that looked tired. Sleepy tired and annoyed tired, presumably because of her ebullient friend. It was the girl that bumped into her yesterday, the girl that dropped her chapstick and apologized way too much over it.

The girl with the tight shirt that fit just right around her thick biceps, the one with the curly hair and brown eyes and shit, she was staring. She quickly averted her eyes to the suddenly very interesting counter and made her way over to the cash register when the lively girl approached.

She took the girl’s order and tried not to let her eyes wander over to the curly-haired girl with her head in her arms. Sapphire secretly hoped she would come over and order something, even if it meant only a second’s worth of a standard, bland back and forth over what she would want to eat. 

She shook her head a little. This was very, very unlike herself. Of course, she recognized when someone was attractive, as everyone else does. Maybe observe them for a few seconds longer than she should, enjoy the sight for sore eyes that would occasionally step in the building. But this time, it felt. It felt odd.

Sapphire had always had a good sixth sense, a spidey sense of her own if you will. Her predictions were usually quite accurate, not only because of her use of critical thinking but it was just a feeling she got. A feeling that coursed through her mind, a feeling that was so clear and crisp she could almost see it as a vision, but not enough for her to fully understand what it meant. 

She had that feeling, looking at the girl sitting in the booth that was now thoroughly examining that packet she left last night. She didn’t know what it was trying to tell her, but it was still there, fogging up in the background of her mind as she tore the receipt off the register.

The curly-haired, brown eyed girl did eventually come up to the counter. She didn’t know if she was just imagining things, but it seemed as if the pretty girl was just as flustered as she felt. Sapphire was very good at hiding her emotions, especially when she was attracted to someone. Even her closest friends would joke about how they never seem to see her blush.

“Order number 4!” she called out, tray in hand.

The girl took the tray and thanked her, but before she left to take her seat, she halted in front of the condiment baskets. Sapphire began to notice when she stood there for 10 seconds, not really moving, just staring at the array of sauces. She was about to hesitantly offer her assistance before the other girl balanced her tray in one hand and began looking through the packets, pausing after picking up each one like she was reading them.

What is she-oh my god. No. There’s absolutely no way. Get it out of your head. That is too coincidental. No. Negative.

She dismissed her strange reminders of last night and focused her attention on a new customer that stepped in.

 

Ruby finally found a packet that would do the job. A simple one she had used yesterday, it read, “Friend request accepted”. She slipped it into her pocket. She still had no idea why she was doing this at all.

After Amethyst had finished eating her own food (which didn’t take very long) and the remaining half of Ruby’s burrito, Ruby had nearly forgotten about the sauce packet in her pocket. Nearly.

With a final “fuck it” she placed the small package next to the greeting she received and followed Amethyst out of the building before she could change her mind. She didn’t know what the hell she was doing. Why she thought it was a funny idea. Or how stupid it was all together. She let her mind rest on the dark-skinned girl she saw today, and how funny fate could be when it wanted to be.

Sapphire almost gaped at Ruby as she left. Her good eye fixed upon the additional packet that was left on the table. She hollered at Lars to mind the register while she cleared off a table, ignoring the displeased groan that followed her request. She speed walked over to the booth and nearly gasped at what she saw. A packet next to the one she left last night. One saying that her friend request was accepted.

This is too weird. No way. There’s literally noooo way. No way. I m p o s s i b l e.

But it could be possible.

The feeling formed words and spoke up for the first time today. 

We share a class. I could ask her about it.

Oh it was really going off now.

Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad. You wanted to talk to her anyway, don’t deny it. You kind of like her, even though you’ve never talked to her.

Maybe it wasn’t wrong. Maybe she should listen to it. Maybe there was a reason why she was called into work today. Maybe she should thank taco bell packets.

Maybe.

**Author's Note:**

> Well. Lol here you have it. I thought of this when I was eating Taco Bell one day over a year ago and I finally finished writing it lol after procrastinating it for so long. Anyway. I kinda think it's trash and like. Really really unlikely, especially for a human AU but hey. I hope you enjoyed it if you managed to read this far. Not sure if I'm gonna continue this or not. Comment if you want me to continue or if you have any feedback on it. Thanks for reading!


End file.
